Police have discovered the bodies of three children and a woman inside a burning house in Salem.

Authorities said it appears a man whose body was found earlier in Cottage Grove killed his family and then himself in a murder-suicide.

Lt. Dave Okada of the Salem Police Department said a fire was reported at a house in the 2500 block of Fisher Road NE at around 5:30 a.m. Tuesday. Firefighters found the bodies of the young children inside and the woman; all four had been murdered.

At 11 a.m., the body of a man—believed to be the husband of the dead woman and the father of the three dead children—was found in a car in Cottage Grove, 85 miles from the crime scene.

At 4:23 a.m., a delivery driver contacted police when he found the body of a dead man lying in the road near Devonshire Avenue NE in the 2800 block of Fisher Road NE about four blocks away from where the four bodies were later found.

Okada said the death is being investigated as separate from the murder suicide just down the street.

Police are not releasing names of the family involved, but said the Oregon State Police, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms and the Marion County District Attorney's Office are assisting Salem police in their investigation.

"We still have to process the scene in Cottage Grove, and at the house in Salem,'' Okada said. "There is still a lot of work to do."

Okada said autopsies were scheduled on the victims.

Salem resident Rosa Chavez, 30, lives across the street from the home where the mother and children were found dead.

She said she was up until 2 a.m., and even stepped outside before heading to bed and didn't hear a commotion. She said the lights of the house were not on.

She woke up this morning and found police had been surrounding the neighbor's home since about 5:30 a.m.

The house where the bodies were found is a single-family, light-green colored home with a gray fence surrounding it. It's one story with what appears to be an attic.

Today, Chavez noticed that several windows of the home had been blown out. She said she also noticed the explosives squad outside the location assisting in the investigation.

"It's not black or charred. I think they caught it before anything went up. There's just windows out,'' Chavez said. "The back door window, and the attic window is blown out.

Chavez said she's lived in the neighborhood for a year and a half, and the family across the street hasn't been there as long. One of their cars - a red-and-green Subaru - remains in the driveway, she said.

It appears one of the victims was found outside the home. Authorities had the body covered with a blanket earlier in the day, neighbors said.

"It's pretty crazy and I'm kinda concerned,'' said Chavez, who has her own children.

Chavez said the couple appeared to be in their 30s or 40s, but she said she never noticed children outside the house.

"Once in a great while, I'll see them outside doing something in their yard,'' she said.